Quick Random Review: "SALIMBA" by Steve Perry and Paul Chadwick


An interesting thing happens with comic book artists. We see their work and assume that what they draw is all they CAN draw. Without meaning to, we put them in a box. That makes it satisfying when we encounter an artist we know and respect doing something different. With help from scribe Steve Perry (Gatekeeper in Hell, Tigers in the Rain), we get to see a new side of award-winning cartoonist Paul Chadwick (Concrete) as the two collaborate on Salimba.
 Yeah, I know. Perry and Chadwick have to get the Jungle Fever fantasy out of the way, but since I believe every woman (even a fictional one) has the right to get her swerve on with whomever she chooses, I will let them have their little chocolate fantasy. When it comes down to it, Salimba is a bad ass chick, and will put her foot in your backside if you forget whose jungle you're in...
Chadwick's art would be reason enough to recommend the book, but Perry's script for Salimba presents a black woman as ruler of the jungle for the first time (remember, these were originally published in the eighties), so there is some cultural significance as well.
As you can see from the pages I preview here, Salimba is printed in black and white, so it may be a hard sell to fans who need a book to be in color to enjoy it, but fans of black and white comics (like me) will dig it. I've been reading comics for a long time, but wasn't into indies when these stories were originally published, so I'd never heard of them. Paul Chadwick is a master cartoonist, and it's neat seeing him working solely on art for a change.

Anyways, I'm really glad I found this hidden gem. It will probably be hard to find these days, but you can CLICK HERE to cop a used or new copy of Salimba through Amazon.

Peace,
-samax
Samax Amen draws people, places and things for fun and profit. He is the artist of many great comics you never heard of like Herman Heed, Champion of Children, The Brother and The World As You Know It. He even writes and draws his own comics, like Dare: The Adventures of Darius Davidson, Spontaneous, and Manchild when he gets around to it. Because making comics is hard and stuff, he started GhettoManga as a blog in 2006 and as a print magazine in 2008. 
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